WAR IN THE GULF: The Vice President; Quayle Aims At Protests, A la Agnew

By MAUREEN DOWD, Special to The New York Times

Published: January 24, 1991

NORFOLK, Va., Jan. 23—
Until now, the White House has made a point of treating the antiwar demonstrations across Pennsylvania Avenue and across the country with benign neglect. But, in visits to three military bases today, Vice President Dan Quayle took a page from Spiro Agnew's approach during the Vietnam War and offered some tart criticism of the demonstrators and coverage of them.

Vice President Quayle did not have any catchy epithets, such as his predecessor's harangues against the press as "pusilanimous pussyfooters" and Vietnam War protesters as "effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."

Mr. Quayle told members of the armed forces and their families at bases in Jacksonville, Fla., Fayetteville, N.C., and Norfolk, Va., that the protests against the war in the Persian Gulf were among the "less inspiring sights at this time of conflict" and had been exaggerated by news organizations. Calls Support Overwhelming

"As all of you know from speaking to your friends and neighbors in your communities, in your churches, and in your living rooms, there is overwhelming support in this nation for President Bush's determination to get Saddam out of Kuwait."

Asked later, in an interview on Air Force Two, if his criticism was a departure from the more benign approach that the White House had been taking, Mr. Quayle said: "Go ahead and do it. You can cover it any way you want. But I, looking at it, especially when you go out and say there are these massive demonstrations and then you see how massive they are, I would think that perhaps the coverage ought to be somewhat of the percentage of those involved."

The Vice President has been present at all of President Bush's war councils, but today marked his debut as a more active participant in the Administration's attempts to keep support firm in the nation and morale high among the American forces.

"We will hold Saddam and his henchmen personally accountable," Mr. Quayle told a pleased crowd at the Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, the home port of the aircraft carrier Saratoga and other ships and air crews involved in the war. "He refused to yield to the force of logic. Now he will have to yield to the logic of force." Meets Wife of First Victim

The Vice President met privately at Mayport with Joanne Speicher, the widow of Lieut. Comdr. Michael Scott Speicher, the first American casualty of the Persian Gulf war, and her two small children, and with Robin Hunter, the brother of Guy Hunter, a marine who was one of the bruised prisoners of war shown denouncing the war.

He also met with relatives of servicemen who died in a ferry accident off Israel in December that left 21 dead. He had private sessions with other family members of American casualties at the other bases.

The Vice President said he wa impressed by the toughness and endurance of some of the wives he met privately, and said there were tears "on both sides."

In his speeches, Mr. Quayle told his audiences that he could not promise that the troops would be home soon or that they would all come home safely. But he could promise, he said, that "Operation Desert Storm will not be another Vietnam," adding, "They will not be asked to fight with one arm tied behind their back." Received With Warmth

Some White House officials had fought against Mr. Quayle's trip to visit the troops in Saudi Arabia over New Year's, fearing that his service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War, a war he supported, might offend some servicemen.

But there was no problem on that trip and Mr. Quayle was received with similar warmth today by most family members, who waved small pieces of notepaper with the names of their relatives' ships: the America, the John F. Kennedy, the Saratoga. Some wore T-shirts that read, "We Scared the Sand out of Saddam" and many crowded around the Vice President to get an autograph or a picture.

"I say, let the past be the past and let's not dwell on Vietnam anymore," said Marsha Thorpe, 30, at Mayport Naval Air Station, when asked if the controversy over Mr. Quayle's National Guard service had faded. She said her husband, James, is a Naval officer serving in the Persian Gulf. For and Against Quayle Role

Other wives of servicemen in the gulf said they had given the matter passing thought, but agreed that Mr. Quayle is the Vice President who is now cheering on American troops and, as such, deserves full respect.

But in each crowd there were some who disagreed. "I don't see how they could send him on a mission of comfort to us when he did those things to get out of going to Vietnam," said Mona Gunn, a resident of Norfolk Naval Air Station whose husband, Louge, is a chief service manager on the hospital boat, the Comfort, in the Persian Gulf.

Photo: Vice President Dan Quayle meeting yesterday with relatives of servicemen at the Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Fla. While at Mayport, the VicePresident met privately with Joanne Speicher, widow of Lieut. Comdr. Michael Scott Speicher, the first American casualty of the Persian Gulf war. (Associated Press)